The following patent application, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and filed concurrently herewith, covers subject matter related to the subject matter of the present invention: A SYSTEM FOR PRECLUDING REPETITIVE ACCESSING OF WEB PAGES IN A SEQUENCE OF LINKED WEB PAGES ACCESSED FROM THE WORLD WIDE WEB THROUGH SEARCHING, McBrearty et al.,
The present invention relates to computer managed communication networks such as the World Wide Web (Web) and, particularly, to systems, processes and programs for reducing users"" time spent in searching by reducing the accessing of previously viewed documents.
The 1990""s decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies which have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet or Web related distribution of documents, media and programs. The convergence of the electronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processing exponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communication distribution channels, and the Web or Internet, which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached xe2x80x9ccritical massxe2x80x9d and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion. With this expansion, businesses and consumers have direct access to all matter of documents, media and computer programs.
In addition, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which had been the documentation language of the Internet or Web for years, offered direct hyperlinks between Web pages embedded in such Web pages. This even further exploded the use of the Internet or Web. It was now possible for the Web browser or wanderer to spend literally hours going through document after document in often less than productive excursions through the Web. These excursions often strained the users"" time and resources. A significant source of this drain is in the Web page itself (the basic document page of the Web).
In the case of Web pages, we do not have the situation of a relatively small group of professional designers working out the human factors; rather, in the era of the Web, anyone and everyone can design a Web page. As a result, Web pages are frequently setup and designed in an eclectic manner. Often Web pages are setup through loose business, professional, social and educational configurations with general trade or public input of Web pages. The names or identifiers selected for the hyperlinks by Web pages hosts or authors are often very similar to each other. As a result, the user going through one or a series of Web searches or browses will find it virtually impossible to recognize the identifiers or hyperlinks to pages which have already been accessed through previous Web pages. Thus, the user may spend considerable time going around in circles.
The above cross-referenced copending application, A SYSTEM FOR PRECLUDING REPETITIVE ACCESSING OF WEB PAGES IN A SEQUENCE OF LINKED WEB PAGES ACCESSED FROM THE WORLD WIDE WEB THROUGH SEARCHING, provides a simple and effective system through which the Web user may avoid the repetitive accessing of most of the previously accessed Web documents in a single or a sequence of Web searches. It provides a system for precluding repetitive accessing of documents linked to hyperlinks in a plurality of hypertext documents. The basic system comprises conventional means at a Web page receiving display station for activating hyperlinks to linked documents in combination with means responsive to such activating means for accessing said linked documents. Means are provided for keeping track of each activated hyperlink in each received or accessed document together with means for precluding the accessing of any document linked to a previously activated or discounted hyperlink. A hyperlink is considered to be discounted if it has been in a previous Web page in the sequence and already been activated to access a linked document. Alternately, the search system may discount all hyperlinks that have been in a previous document in the sequence and, thus, presented to the user on the display. All such previously accessed and/or discounted documents are included in a list cached conveniently at the search engine level. Then, in all subsequent documents developed through the search, a compare of hyperlinks is made to the links listed in the cache and all listed hyperlinks are precluded from being again presented in subsequent document pages.
The present invention involves the further recognition of carrying out the tracking and listing of previously activated hyperlinks or discounted hyperlinks at the Web browser application or system and the Web receiving display station gives the user a much wider variety of options in handling of repetitive hyperlinks from previously accessed Web pages. In addition to precluding hyperlinks which had been activated in previous pages and/or hyperlinks which have been discounted merely by having been present in previous pages, the Web browser may be setup to permit the user to specifically discount individual hyperlinks or groups of hyperlinks. Also, the Web browser may be setup to preclude repetitive hyperlinks in subsequent Web pages from searches from different search engines.
The present invention is implemented in a communication network such as the Web or Internet (used synonymously) with user access via a plurality of data processor controlled interactive receiving display stations for displaying received hypertext documents of at least one display page containing text, images and a plurality of embedded hyperlinks, each hyperlink being user selectable to access and display a respective linked hypertext document (Web page). It provides a system for precluding repetitive accessing of documents linked to hyperlinks in a plurality of hypertext documents.
The basic system comprises search means for locating and providing to receiving display stations hypertext documents, combined with a Web browsing system operatively associated with the receiving display station, including means for querying said search means for hypertext documents, means for activating hyperlinks to linked documents and means responsive to said activating means for accessing the linked documents. The browser also includes user interactive means for discounting hyperlinks in received Web documents, and means for precluding the accessing of any document linked to a previously discounted hyperlink.
The user may setup the system to operate on a single Web search or a sequence of such searches or sessions. The browser application may be setup to handle such a sequence of searches made on several different search engines. Once a hyperlink is activated or discounted in a tracked Web page, the setup precludes the accessing of documents linked to previously activated or discounted hyperlinks contained in subsequently accessed documents. When the previously discounted or activated hyperlinks are part of the text or image content of said subsequently accessed document, then accessing of linked documents is precluded by rendering the previously activated hyperlinks inactivatable in the subsequently accessed documents without affecting the text or image value of said hyperlinks. If it turns out that any subsequently accessed Web pages or documents contain only previously discounted or accessed hyperlinks, then the browser system may not present such pages or documents to the user.